NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – A former Isleta Pueblo police officer accused of raping his female DWI suspect will no longer be an officer. KRQE Investigates exposed the case earlier this year, and Thursday afternoon, the Law Enforcement Academy Board voted to revoke the officer’s certification.
Leon Martin was arrested just over a year ago after the woman he picked up for DWI came forward and accused him of raping her. “To be honest, you know, I do regret it,” said Martin in a video interview with New Mexico State Police in November of 2021. “It did escalate. I could have prevented it, I should have prevented it. But it just, it escalated too far to what I wanted it to.”
The 23-year-old former Isleta Police Department officer was on duty when he arrested a young woman for DWI after she crashed her car into a guardrail on the Isleta Pueblo. Martin admitted he didn’t drive the woman straight to jail.
The woman reported Martin drove her to a secluded area near MDC in Albuquerque and asked her to go to the driver’s side of his patrol car, where the woman says she was raped. Martin was arrested and charged with two counts of rape, false imprisonment, demanding or receiving a bribe, and violation of ethical principles of public service – all felonies.
Thursday afternoon, the Law Enforcement Academy (LEA) Board voted unanimously to revoke Martin’s law enforcement certification. Martin remains in custody on a no-bond hold. The woman’s DWI charge was dropped “in the best interest of justice.”
Leon Martin is scheduled to go to trial on these charges in April. He faces up to 24 years in prison.
